icklebabe.com, it's in the blog

Christmas is nearly over, nearly time to put the baubles and tinsel back in their dusty hiding places and enjoy the feeling of space that comes from taking down the now rather wonky tree and putting away the last of the wayward gifts and toys.

Although  a little sad to see the end of the bright shiny magic of  Christmas, I love this time of year. Its a really cleansing time to reflect on things past and things yet to be. A new start,  time where everything seems possible, a new page for filling.

So I figured its time for a change, take icklebabe in a bit of a new direction, its all still buzzing around my head but I am really excited about where this new year is about to take me. I will keep you posted on all new creations and would love your very valued feed back

But before we say goodbye to Christmas we have a new year to celebrate!!!

Me and big J are lucky enough to have all the kid’s at home this new year so we are going to have a really lovely get together with the family and hopefully see in the new year with a bit of a optimistic bang!

I have decided on a nice spicy prawn chilli curry for the grown ups. This is for 3 reasons, it uses up all the left over frozen prawns I have lurking in the freezer, that were supposed to be a grand christmas starter and that I completely forgot about (whoops!)

It’s  great for soaking up alcohol! Bonus!

And it’s also easy enough to eat whether you find space at the table or just the end of an armchair to perch on. All you need is a fork, and a glass of something merry to get the party started!

So here we are, Marsala Jhinga…or chilli prawns! and Yummy garlic butter naans, if  you have your own christmas prawns to eat up and you give it a go, I would love to know how you get on! Oh and…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope its a blummin fine one for you all!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!

Masala Jhinga

Chilli Prawns

3cm root ginger, rougly chopped

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

4 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 green chilli, deseeded or 1 heaped tablespoon of hot chilli pickle

a good pinch of salt to taste

a good pinch of peper

3 tablespoons of butter

1 large red peper

500g or tiger or king prawns

120ml of water

half a freshly squeezed lemon

Ground spices-

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 teaspoons of chilli powder

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

Serves 4

Blitz all the first 8 ingredients in a blender to make a smoth paste.

Heat a little oil and a  knob of butter in a heavy bottomed pan and add the paste.

When it just begins to sizzle in the pan, add the prawns and the red pepper and fry for a couple of mins and add the water.

cook until the mixture reduces slightly and then add the ground spices and lemon juice with another couple of knobs of butter.

stir well for another couple of mins and serve, YUM!!

For the garlic naan there is a little cheat I have concocted that I think tastes as good as the restaurant ones.

All you do is get some large, good quantity plain naans,(one per person)  and mix up about 3 tablespoons of butter and 2 cloves of crushed garlic, smear generously over the naans and grill for a couple of mins until the butter is all melty and the naans are nice and warm…Double yum!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.